Can Admin read private messages?

@Northwest I am curious.
I suppose they would not have time nor the inclination to read all Private messages.

@Gusman it’s a trust based system. There have been so many incidents, where employees with access stole and manipulated data. This is especially true for companies that offshore their system maintenance operations.

@Northwest The database should have access control so that only those with a need to know can read things. This applies to SW just as much as it does to your tax and health records.

@ninalanyon
And the Administrators group, is the party that controls this. There's always one or more people, with admin privileges, who have visibility into every single aspect of the system.

@Northwest Of course. My point was simply that the other employees, contractors, etc., should be in an access control list that does not give such access. But in fact even the administrators should not have access to private messages during the normal operation of the site; they should expect to switch to an account with elevated privileges only when necessary.

@ninalanyon Sure, but I'm responding to the question:

@Northwest I realize that. Just adding information about how this sort of thing is supposed to work for those who have never had the privilege, or misfortune, to have been a sysadmin.